After a few minutes, Luke rose to his feet and said, "What do you think would happen if I took a dip in it?"

The woman looked up at him, then at the pond, before slowly shaking her head.

"I don’t know. And I don’t want to make any promises only to be blamed later."

Luke chuckled inwardly.

Quite the cautious type.

Still, considering everything the water had shown so far, he had a feeling caution was warranted.

Other than helping Synthia survive here without food, there was no indication of what effect it might have on a moving, living being.

Or perhaps Synthia herself hadn’t realized the changes she had undergone after spending so long here.

Anything was possible.

That was exactly why he intended to be careful.

For now, at least.

"What are you doing?" Synthia asked as Luke crouched by the pond and pulled out a small vial.

"Taking a few samples. I want to study it further."

The change in her expression was immediate.

Synthia visibly stiffened.

"Are you leaving now?"

Luke paused and glanced back at her.

"You do realize I can’t stay here forever, right?"

Her eyes instantly grew moist.

The fear was unmistakable.

It flashed across her face so openly that Luke felt a slight tug in his chest.

Slowly, she reached out and grabbed the edge of his trousers.

"Don’t go..." she whispered. "At least stay a little longer. It’s been so long since I talked to anyone."

Luke let out a quiet sigh and checked the time.

Less than four hours remained to complete his objective.

He still needed to hunt more than twenty Level One beasts, along with four Level Two beasts, creatures he certainly wasn’t going to find in this place.

Ideally, he should have left immediately.

The hunt was the entire reason he had come here in the first place.

Yet when he looked into those eyes...

For some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to pull away.

She reminded him of someone.

Someone he didn’t want to think about.

Someone whose memory still lingered deep within his heart.

He took another deep breath and sat back down beside her.

"Alright. I’m not going anywhere for now. I still have things to do, but I can stay a little longer."

The change was immediate.

All Luke saw was a child.

A genuinely happy child.

Her lips curled into a bright smile, and her eyes widened with pure delight.

Just a few extra minutes of someone’s time could make a person this happy...

It was the first time Luke had witnessed something like that.

As he settled down, he stored the vials inside his inventory, deciding to inspect them later if time permitted. Naturally, any proper analysis would have to be done while he remained inside the dungeon. The system would almost certainly refuse to let him carry such unknown substances back into the real world.

’Hmm?’

Luke noticed something subtle.

Synthia had quietly shuffled closer.

Her fingers had found the hem of his shirt, lightly pinching it between them.

The message couldn’t have been clearer.

She was afraid he would disappear the moment she let go.

What did loneliness feel like?

Luke had experienced a version of it once.

For three months, he had remained shut inside his penthouse, barely speaking to anyone and cutting himself off from the outside world.

But even that was hardly comparable.

He had entertainment.

A private gym.

An endless supply of food.

The freedom to restock anything he wanted.

If anything, it had felt more like an extended vacation than true isolation.

For Synthia, however...

This place must have been a prison.

Torn away from her family.

Stranded in a forgotten corner of the world.

Surrounded by silence so absolute that no one could hear her voice.

No one could hear her cries.

No one could answer them.

As Luke looked at the mermaid sitting beside him, clutching his shirt as though it were the only thing anchoring her to reality, he could only imagine the pain she must have endured.

And somehow, that thought weighed far heavier on him than it should have.

"Synthia... tell me about your home. Your people. What was your life like before you woke up here?" Luke asked, partly to lighten the mood and partly because he genuinely wanted to know more about her.

Maybe there was some way he could help.

Synthia grew quiet for a moment before speaking.

"I used to live in a vast ocean that stretched farther than the eye could see. After some time, my mate and I moved to a different region, far away from my birthplace."

Her gaze drifted toward the pond.

"My relationship with my family was not good. They disliked my unusual hair color and believed it was a sign of a curse."

Luke’s eyebrows shot upward.

"A curse?" he repeated in disbelief. "What kind of fool would call such a beautiful color cursed?"

He shook his head.

"Honestly, when you first appeared, I thought a giant flower had risen from the water."

A grin tugged at his lips.

"A very beautiful flower."

Synthia lowered her eyes.

A faint smile appeared on her face, gentle and bittersweet.

"You sound like him..."

Luke tilted his head.

"Pinna."

Realization dawned on him.

Her mate.

"He used to say the same thing." Her voice softened. "He always told me my hair was beautiful. He never treated me differently because of it."

For a brief moment, a warmth entered her eyes, as though she were looking at a distant memory.

"In fact, he was the first person who accepted me exactly as I was."

Slowly, she raised her gaze and looked directly at Luke.

The smile on her lips deepened ever so slightly.

"...And you are the second."

For a moment, Luke found himself at a loss for words.

Then, in a softer voice, Luke asked, "Tell me about the day you ended up here."

Synthia’s delicate brows knitted together.

The warmth that had briefly appeared on her face faded almost instantly, replaced by something far heavier.

"It was..." She paused, searching for the right words. "A strange day."

Her gaze drifted into the distance.

"The sky had never been that dark. Or that violent."

A faint shiver ran through her.

"I have always been afraid of lightning. But that day... everyone in the colony was terrified. We all felt that something terrible was about to happen."

She turned her eyes toward the pond, its calm surface standing in stark contrast to the memory she was recalling.

"The sea became restless. The waves grew wild and uncontrollable. A storm was forming on the horizon, so we moved to a safer area and tried to endure it."

A faint smile touched her lips before quickly fading.

"I still remember how tightly Pinna held me."

Her voice softened.

"We hid beneath our favorite rock formation deep within the ocean."

For a moment, she seemed lost in that memory.

Then her expression darkened.

"But something happened."

The words came out barely above a whisper.

"And I got separated from him."

Luke felt the fingers gripping his vest tremble ever so slightly.

Synthia lowered her head.

"I could barely understand what was happening. The waves carried me away, and my body wouldn’t respond no matter how hard I struggled."

Fear flickered across her eyes, as vivid as if she were reliving the moment.

"It was terrifying."

"Everywhere I looked, there was only darkness and raging water. I couldn’t tell which way was up or down. I couldn’t hear anything except the roar of the ocean."

She swallowed hard.

"I tried calling out to him. Again and again."

A fragile crack appeared in her voice.

"But my voice was swallowed by the storm."

"I don’t know how long it lasted," she whispered. "Half a day or days... perhaps even longer."

Her eyes remained fixed on the water.

"The next thing I remember is waking up here."

A bitter smile appeared on her face.

"Alone."

Luke thought for a moment before asking the system.

’You know anything about this system?’

There was no response. And that somehow felt ominous.

•••••••••

A/N:- I hope you liked the Chapter.